Sponsored by Through a Glass Darkly
Taught by Prof. David W. Opderbeck
The course will run from January 16 to April 29, 2021. If you’re interested in how Christian theology relates to the natural sciences, please join us! The course is open to anyone.
You can access the materials on this site for free. If you appreciate the course materials, please consider registering! For $25, you can participate in a community discussion board and in monthly Zoom chats during the course period. For $35, you can participate in the community discussion board and Zoom chats and receive a signed copy of my most recent book, The End of the Law? Law, Theology and Neuroscience (Cascade 2021). If choose the free registration, you’ll receive email updates when new content is posted to the site.
About Prof. Opderbeck
David Opderbeck is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology and Institute for Privacy Protection at Seton Hall University Law School. In addition to his legal training, David earned an M.A.T. from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the University of Nottingham. His doctoral work focused on issues relating to theology and science. He is the author of The End of the Law? Law, Theology, and Neuroscience (Cascade 2021) and Law and Theology: Classic Questions and Contemporary Perspectives (Fortress Press 2019), along with numerous other academic publications. He is a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
About the Course
This course provides a survey of the approaches to the relationship between Christian theology and the natural sciences. It covers the Christian doctrine of creation, the history of Biblical interpretation relating to natural phenomena, and theological approaches to questions of origins, natural evil, and causality. It integrates these historical and theological studies with an examination of perspectives from the natural sciences on cosmology and the development of life on Earth. It further examines ethical issues arising from Christian teachings about the purposes of creation.
The course content is equivalent to an undergraduate or graduate level class, but you can customize it for your own interests and needs. Through this site, we’re offering the course materials, weekly lecture materials, and a discussion forum and live Zoom chats (for Patreon supporters) so we can engage with each other as we work through the material. We hope it deepens your appreciation for God’s creation and our human place with in it, enhances your sense of wonder and worship, and equips you to lead within your local community.
Course Reading
Please visit the Reading page for information about the texts we’ll use during the course. You can participate in the course without the reading, but you’ll learn much more if you read along.
Course Modules
Here are links to the course module descriptions. Each module will cover two weeks of our “semester.”
Method in Theology and Science
Historical Perspectives: From the Early Church to the Rise of Modern Creationism
God, “The Maker of Heaven and Earth”; Creation Ex Nihilo; Divine Providence and Natural Contingency
What is “Life” and What is Life For? Plants, Animals, and the Order of Creation; The Problem of Evil
Theological Anthropology: The Soul, Neurotheology, Philosophy of Mind, and Human Freedom
Hamartiology: Sin, Original Sin, the “Fall,” “Natural Evil,” and Death